Barça defend Twitter campaign over Messi tax fraud conviction

FC Barcelona responded to criticism on Monday over their controversial social media campaign ‘#WeAreAllLeoMessi’ – the hashtag the club created to defend their star striker Lionel Messi after his conviction for tax fraud last week.

“We want to condemn the unjust treatment that Leo Messi is receiving. This is how we will feel and why we’ve done it. We are talking about a young man who joined us at 19 years old who didn’t know what to sign…these contracts that have eventually caused him these problems. He did everything through his advisors, who he trusts completely,” stated Josep Vives, Bracelona’s spokesman. “The player regulated his situation with the tax office a while ago…he’s paid more than €50 million [in taxes].”

"We can't tolerate the situation...it's humiliating"

“The public prosecutors, who handle all these types of cases, said they didn’t have any basis to accuse the player. In the end the State’s Attorney, which in cases similar to Messi’s has acted in a different way, didn’t give him the same treatment. Messi’s feeling that he’s been treated unjustly, and we can’t tolerate the situation.”

“It was a humiliation. We won’t allow them to treat him like a crook,” added Vives, referring to the comments of Mario Maza, the state attorney who said Messi “acts as if we were the boss of a criminal network”.

The Barça spokesman continued: “Messi has every right to feel hard done by and we believe the club should stand by him. We’re going to give him our support because we believe in him and we’re convinced we should be by his side.”